Not applicable.
The present invention relates to a word forming board game, specifically to forming words extending from previously played letters of a word chain and including words within words.
The prior art includes many types of word forming board games. A small number of these games employ the concepts of word chains, word extending, and word extracting. Prior art in these areas include games which construct multidirectional word bridges across a board, games which allow for the addition of letters to each end of a word to create an entirely new word (embedding), and games in which known words are extracted from provided words. Prior art suffers from a number of disadvantages:
(a) Their methods of play and scoring systems do not reward word selection which creates multiple words within words in a single turn.
(b) These games do not allow for the extension of words from multiple letters of previous play in a word chain.
(c) These games do not provide a method of scoring which rewards both the number of words and the length of each word in a given turn.
(d) They do not provide a method of board rotation or movement without resorting to complex board design (for games with only one word orientation, the board must be rotated to face each player in turn). Tiles tend to easily move off their space during play.
(e) Some of these games require the need for selector holders to hide and sort a specified number of tiles. These devices not only add to the cost of the game, but also indicate a limitation of available letter choices for play.
(f) In games which have no limitation on letter choice, the methods for letter selection are cumbersome and time consuming. In these games, clean up or set up times are also longer because letters have to be sorted and regrouped. There is also a possibility of running out of specific letters if an overabundance of each letter is not supplied.
The present invention is a word forming board game played upon an erasable surface. The game board is divided into letter spaces. In turn each player rolls a die to determine the maximum amount of letters to be played. An instruction card is then drawn. This card may change play in some way. The active player then declares a word and adds the letters to spell this word. This primary word must extend from the previously played letters of a word chain. Players receive one point for every letter in their primary word, and all other acceptable words formed during play. Acceptable words must read from left to right without skipping letters. They must also be at least three letters long. Other players may challenge any words they believe to be misspelled or otherwise unacceptable according to the rules. The game proceeds until someone has reached a predetermined number of points.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages to the present invention are:
(a) to provide a style of play with the unique purpose of creating multiple words within words during a single turn.
(b) to provide a means of extending new words from multiple letters of previous play in a word chain.
(c) to provide a method of play which allows for the rotation of the playing surface and keeps letters from moving without complex board design or excessive cost.
(d) to provide a method of play which precludes the need for selector holders to hide and sort tiles.
(e) to provide an improved method of selecting and playing letters in a game with no limitation on letter choice.
The present invention and its obvious advantages will be best understood from the following description of the specific embodiments when read with the accompanying drawings.